Why car racings stock is rising

Its bigger than baseball in America, and now its coming to a cinema near you. Nascar has become a cultural phenomenon, says Brian Schofield

It’s just a kids’ cartoon about talking cars, right? A cocky roadster, voiced by Owen Wilson, learns the value of loyalty and trust from Paul Newman’s grizzled old banger, and everyone drives off into a Disneyland sunset? Cars, the latest CGI family multiplex-packer from the Disney-Pixar team that produced Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, sounds like simple enough fare, with the only subtext being the usual grown-up gags flying over the little ones’ heads.

But look a little closer, at the carefully drawn muscle cars, the meticulously realistic racing lines and the packed asphalt oval where Lightning McQueen learns his uplifting life lessons in the final reel and, if you know your American pop culture, you will know you are not just watching a cartoon — you are watching Nascar. Or, for the uninitiated, you are witnessing another step in the bewilderingly successful campaign for stock-car racing to take